Fluorescents

7

"Soon there'll be no pain again, you'll feel like yourself again."

I park my car close to the buses as the music plays through the cars speakers. Jack and another man that I'm not familiar with approach us as I station the car. I shut the ignition and me and Alex exit without saying another word to one another as he hugs the brown paper bag tightly against his chest. He must really love his alcohol.

" This is the man that'll return your car to the parking garage." Jack tells me and I hand him my keys before thanking him. Jack really did think of everything. I'll never be able to fully repay him for everything he's done for me.

When I finally peel my attention away from the man, I gaze at Jack who is eyeing Alex with an angry expression. Alex doesn't bother to say anything to either of us and makes his way back to the buses as Jack eyes him down. I can tell that Jack doesn't approve of me being near him but I'm not exactly sure why. Over the course of the last tour me and Jack became close like we were before. He reminded me a lot of my childhood with my uncle slick and I found comfort in him while performing the difficult and stressful tasks that came with being a stage manager's assistant.

" He wanted a ride." I inform him as he continues to gaze at Alex who is confidently trotting away towards his bus. Jack finally peels his eyes away from him and gazes at me with a sympathetic look. 

" Just don't get too involved with him." He warns me and I nod my head. A part of me wants to argue and tell him he has no right to tell me what to do but he's a great guy and I can tell that he's correct. I shouldn't be getting involved with Alex at all and even Jack knows that. I need to focus on my job and stay professional. Friendships aren't something I want from this job. These people are different from Cage.

" So is everyone here and is everything ready?" I ask and he nods his head before leading me to the loaded buses. He shows me around and informs me of everything before finally leading me back to my tour bus. When I enter I find a worried Shay pacing around.

" Oh my god, where were you?" She asks and I subconsciously knit my eyebrows together in confusion. Did she not remember me leaving with Alex? She seemed pretty angry but I thought she would at least notice that I disappeared shortly after he left. Maybe because she had specifically told me to stay away from him and didn't expect me to do exactly what she recommended I don't do. Especially after what happened between them on the bus.

" Alex asked me for a ride so he could get some pain killers." I tell her as I move past her and make my way onto the bus. She groans in her spot before dramatically pulling at her hair. I am aware that he's an asshole and he disrespected her tremendously when he was here but what exactly is up between the two of them? My curiosity is getting the best of me and I want to know all the details. Their history with one another doesn't seem completely clean and I can't help but want to know all the gossip. I'm not some obsessed teenage girl that's into gossip im just truly curious and if I'm planning on being friends with her I want to be sure that Alex will somehow not affect it. I contemplate asking her all the questions running through my mind but before I can say a word she interrupts my thoughts.

" Well that doesn't matter right now." She sighs before grabbing me by my hand and leading me towards the back of the bus where the bunks are. When we enter I am introduced to several new girls all standing near the bunks, conversing.

"This is Clair, the photographer." Shay introduces me to a girl with pale skin and auburn hair. I instantly recognize her. She's Jacks daughter and happened to also be the photographer for Cages last tour that we were both involved in.

" Hey, oh my god. It's you." I say before I envelope her in a hug. She hugs me back and gives me a sweet smile that I return. Shay seems surprised but amused that we are familiar with one another.

"This is Lauren, the publicist for the tour." Shay says waving towards A short girl with blonde hair that gives me a confident smile and a polite wave but doesn't say much before returning to her business on her phone.
" Ok now. This is Amy and Maribel, the bands' assistants." Shay continues, politely introducing me to the next two girls. I shake their hands before giving them a sweet smile that they politely return. They seem extremely young and have makeup completely covering their face and I can't help but think that their only here to hook up with the bands. For their sake I hope they don't go for Alex. Why am I thinking about him? He doesn't matter. I don't need anymore stress right now.

" It's lovely meeting you guys, I'm Jocelyn the stage manager." I tell them and they all nod their heads before returning to their conversations as if we were not here. Hopefully there's no drama between any of us.

The assistants seem like inexperienced teenage girls that just tagged along to be able to tell all their friends that they've toured with the bands. Maybe I shouldn't judge before I actually get to know them. That'll only subsequently start drama. I take a deep breath before stepping away from them and reverting my attention back to Shay. My curiosity from earlier is gone and I'm more calm now. It isn't the best time in our friendship to nag at her with questions so I decide to push my past thoughts to the side. Maybe she'll tell me herself another time when we get to know one another better. For now we'll just focus on growing our friendship.

" Ok so don't hate me-" Shay pulls her hands in front of her in defense and I stare at her, confused. " But I may or may not have gone through one of your fantastic mix tapes" I laugh lightly and shrug my shoulders at her over exaggerated reaction to what she did. She's very humorous and I'm glad she isn't extremely boring. I was upset that the band I was touring with this time wasn't as amazing as Cage but she compensated for it. " I was skimming through some of your songs and I found one I'm in love with." She gushes and I smile at her. It's great to know that she enjoys my music. Hopefully she lets me play it through the bus often. Now I just have to deal with the rest of the girls. I'm sure Clair won't mind, she enjoyed Cage The Elephant's music during the last tour and most of my music is somewhat similar to theirs.

Shay pushes the mixtape into the CD player and she skims through the different songs before finally landing on one. She steps back and the melody begins to play. But before the lyrics begin a knocking noise coming from the front entrance to the bus interrupts us.